Section Six: Teacher Candidate Interview Video

The Teacher Candidate Interview Video provides the viewer with an opportunity to hear

directly from the candidate about their background, learnings from the Master of Education,

Elementary Education Program as well as the connections the candidate makes to relevant

theorists. The website created by the candidate will also be highlighted during the video and the

links to the website and interview video are provided below:

https://ccurryteach.weebly.com/

https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cYjfquGVAP

Teacher Candidate Interview Questions and Responses

1. Briefly share a little about your background experiences that have led you to choose a

career in education.

My key skills of facilitation and training, communication skills, community engagement,

problem solving have geared me towards choosing a career in education. I have found that in my

careers what has given me the most joy is when I can help clients or peers, learn something new

and to achieve a goal. That is where I got the most satisfaction.

Working in the private sector as a financial advisor and sales consultant my focus was on

helping individuals achieve their goals.

 In the community-oriented work, when I worked for the Homeless Coalition and has a

Manager of Homelessness at the city of London it was about rallying different Community

organizations together to create a strategy help people that were experiencing homelessness.

Now in education many students that we know, struggle with poverty. Having a past

experience with mental health addiction, homelessness and poverty, I am acutely aware of those

needs and the challenges the people in those communities’ face. I am very much hoping to be

able to open doors for people should they need additional resources in the community.

In the two most recent experience that I've had, where I owned a Home Care home care

company for five years. In this role I was focused on helping clients, the people that were going

to receive the support, be connected to nurses and the personal support workers. My focus was to

make sure that that those Healthcare professionals would know the exact details of what clients

would be looking for and how we could help the most.

It is the same way with students. We know that once we learn about the students and we

know what they need to be successful, we can help wrap those supports around them. Helping

them through their educational journey.

Finally, my most recent and relevant position, was working at the London District

Catholic School Board as a Temporary Classroom Support Person. In that role I was an

unlicensed emergency supply teacher, in a different class and different school every day. One of

the most fascinating things that I found that really demonstrated my ability to build relationships

was that I could be in a class once, not returning to that school for months at a time and leave a

lasting impact. I remember walking into a school and it was in March and I had not been there

since December, of the previous year. I was just heading towards the staff room and then all of a

sudden, I heard, "Mr. Curry! Mr. Curry!" I turned around and there was a student that had
walked by the hallway, recognized me and thought to call out and wave just so that I could say

hello to them. They hadn't seen me in months and I only have them for one day. I know that I

made an impact with them.

My goal every day is to figure out how I can reach one student or two students and think of

how can I do something to help them become more engaged in school or enjoy being there and

get engaged to the content. In this role, I found a love of teaching and love of working with

students.

2. What have you learned in your teacher training program that will make you an excellent

classroom teacher and colleague?

The Master of Science in Education, Elementary Education Program at Medaille college

provided me with exceptional learning opportunities and has given me the confidence to become

an effective teacher.

Prior to undertaking this program, I had a strong background in facilitation and in

building relationships, but I didn't understand pedagogy. During this program, I learned how to

plan, teach and assess students in order to help them succeed. It is at Medaille that I learned how

to make connections to some of my favourite theorists like Vygotsky. Understanding how to

utilize the theories of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and scaffolding into lesson

planning. Learning how to provide just enough support to students so that they can achieve

something they couldn't do on their own and then understanding when to withdraw the supports

as they become more capable. The works of Skinner and his theory of positive reinforcement. I

understood the concept I just didn't know how to connect it to instruction.

 I also learned about Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and how students

can utilize multiple aspects of their abilities, from logic to kinesthetic. Harry Wong’s classroom

management strategies were also an important aspect of what I learned at Medaille and then was

able to put into practice when I was back working in classrooms for the Catholic Board. This

opportunity to take my learnings from Medaille and immediately put them into practice in live

environments was one of the most beneficial opportunities about this program. I was able to

consistently evolve my level of thinking in my ability to help the students.

3. Provide us with an example of a lesson you taught. How did you integrate it with other

curriculum areas, address the CCLS, technology, student engagement and

motivation? What were the results of the lesson?

One example of a lesson that I taught that cut across multiple areas of the curriculum was

a math-oriented lesson that I developed during my field placement in my second semester. I was

working with a partner and we came up with an idea of doing a math activity with the game

twister.

And this is where you put into practice Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, as the

students would be activating their logical and mathematical acuity with their kinesthetic ability,

as they would have to use balance and strength to hold awkward postures, depending on where

their hands and feet were and relative to the other people that were playing the game. It was a

math activity but there was element of physical education in there as well.

One of are the things that I enjoyed most about this lesson is that it was so adaptable. We

were able to modify the activity based on the students, so students would spin a wheel and they
would have to add up the two numbers. They would spin it once and then get a number and then

spend it again and get a second number and then have to add it together and that's where they

would end up putting their hands in their feet.

We had students of all different ages and abilities there and so one thing we are able to do

was to modify the activity for older students or we could bring in multiplication instead of

addition. Tying this activity back to Vygotsky again because when some of the students struggle

and they found the multiplication too challenging, we were able to use certain strategies to

scaffold, helping them reflect using skip counting or other methods for how they would be able

to solve the problems.

Whether it was young students or older students, this lesson was very effective in that the

students were engaged and had a lot of fun and were able to conduct formative assessments on

their abilities.

4. How will your knowledge of the current trends in education inform you as an educator in

our district/board/school?

One of the trends in education that I have observed is working with students with a

variety of special needs as there is a desire to have inclusive classrooms. As a parent I have a

daughter that has special needs. She is in high school, but I have worked as parents going

through the IEP process for her entire educational experience. In this way, I am very sensitive in

understanding of the support students need to help keep them in class, to keep them engaged in

class. I also understand what parents need in terms of support and the conversations that need to

happen between the teacher, parent and the administrative staff, to be able to make sure that
students are getting the resources that they need. I am acutely aware of those challenges and I'm

happy to work with parents to on this because I have that background experience.

Having a child grow up with special needs also helps me because I am able to recognize when

things can escalate in a classroom. I can often catch those triggers before it escalates, or I also

have the skills to be able to deescalate situations before they get too far out of hand.

Increased use of technology in the classroom is another trend. l one of the great things

about the program at Medaille is the training on top technological tools. This is something that

fits especially right now as we are experiencing a pandemic, being able to have correctly utilize

technological tools that offer clear benefit. These tools are going to be something the students

need and if we can supply them with additional resources that are more effective for them than

simple pen and paper and we can use those technologies that they may not have had in the past.

To conclude, supporting students with special needs and working with new technologies

are two trends that we are experiencing.

5. Why should we hire you instead of the other applicants we have interviewed?

This start with my ability to build relationships with students and because of my

understanding of students that have special needs. Fewer calls the office for assistance and the

ability to work with fewer additional resources in the classroom. When I go to assist at the

schools for the Catholic board that I have had principals see that it is me arriving for that day and

say, “great see you again, fantastic”. They know that I am going to be able to handle when their

students are challenging because I just have an innate understanding with all my experience

working with kids special needs. I am also a caring individual and completely driven to help
students achieve their best levels in education. I get very excited about learning more about them

and finding out how I can wrap the curriculum around their ideas. I have a lot of skills and

resources and I constantly reflect on what I can improve upon.

I am also an excellent person to have as a peer, as I am all about collaboration. If there is

anything that I can bring to the table or an idea so I can talk to my respected teachers, I am happy

to share it. I'm also the person's going to walk around taking pictures, of all the really great

anchor charts and chatting with teachers about how they're able to teach subjects so well. I am

always happy to learn and improve. What you are going to be getting is a person that is really

focused on best practices and understanding how to collaborate with their peers to create an

excellent culture at the school but also someone that is going to be an effective teacher that is

going to learn very quickly.

These are the main reasons that you are going to want to have me as a teacher in your

school and I look forward to future discussions, and thank you very much for taking the time to

watch my video today.

Conclusion

This section provided the reader and observer to learn more about the characteristics,

skills and abilities that I have as an educator and that will make me an excellent fit for teaching

at their school. Examples of my ability to build relationships with students, teachers, staff and

administration were highlighted as well as my skills in working with technology, students with

special needs and working through effective lesson plans.